Areva Safety I&C standardizes engineering tool environment

Decision in favour of database-driven engineering system from Aucotec

Areva GmbH, the German subsidiary of the globally acting specialist for nuclear power plant technology, has opted for Aucotec in the basic and hardware engineering discipline of their safety Instrumentation & Control (I&C). Despite highly automated tools deployed in Areva’s engineering centre, Erlangen, which executes engineering projects on the basis of their control system throughout the global group, the software platform Engineering Base (EB) replaces miscellaneous previously used maintenance inflexible tools. Thus EB contributes to the standardization of the system environment and engineering workflows at Areva NP Safety I&C.

Implementation ahead of time

“In an analysis, Aucotec had proven that EB provides significant savings due to increased productivity in combination to higher quality and potential for further enhancements,” explains Steffen Richter, regional head of I&C and Electrical Products at Areva. This result led the planned deployment to be initiated one year ahead of original schedule. "In addition to its unique and flexible architecture, we were won over by the object-oriented data management and the simple, clear configuring of even complex interrelationships," says Richter. "We can connect our internal processes to EB, this unifies our methods in different design steps and the representation of engineering data becomes much easier."

Management of all relevant engineering data

As further reasons for the decision, the engineering expert referred to the fact that the new system enables the generation of function-based manufacturing documentation according to international standards and is also used for the convenient management of all relevant engineering data generated and modified in various phases of the project. EB is designed to support the entire life cycle of the I&C systems. "We expect a strong partnership that will support us in the deployment phase and cover the evolution of our needs over the years," says Steffen Richter. "We are also thinking of the possibility of subsequently extending the solution to more sites."

Aucotec's Executive Officer for Engineering Uwe Vogt had the following to say about the decision: "Safety and reliability have top priority for Areva. They are also of equal importance to us. EB's central plant model, which minimizes system disruptions, misleading discussions and transmission errors, is perfect for this purpose. We have invested over three decades of experience in EB. We are looking forward to a successful collaboration based on trust!"

Pilot project

Areva's platform TELEPERM® XS, for whose engineering EB is used, is one of the most common safety I&C systems for nuclear power in the world. It is used wherever the maximum level of reliability is required. In a pilot project, EB and the master data are to be adapted this year to the Areva-specific processes and documentation requirements. Furthermore, a catalogue will be created with standardized templates and tested in a pilot project. Areva and Aucotec experts are working closely together for this purpose. The first full live performance of the system is planned for 2017.